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Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Skydance Animation. Menken's music for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) has each won him two Academy Awards .
Mar 31, 2023 · As the composer behind The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, Alan Menken has created some of Disney’s most recognizable scores and songs. His canon has paved the way for...
- The Music Comes Before Anything Else
- How Important Are The Visuals?
- Don't Get Attached to A Song
- So How Do You Create New Disney Hits?
The first thing to know is that for most Disney animations the musical dramatists — aka the songwriters — are brought in by the studio first. "That's something people don't know," Mr Menken told ABC News Breakfast. "Generally you go from the basic story, to the basic structure of telling the story, to what musical style you're going to use to tell ...
According to Mr Menken, a good song should combine with good visuals to hold the film together. He said that while the composer and animators almost always collaborated well, sometimes their focus would be in different areas. "In animation sometimes they'll be concentrating on a visual they really want to do and we'll be concentrating on a plot poi...
Having written more than 40 musicals Mr Menken has developed a pretty good feel for the business. "I invite opinions but … I have a pretty good sense of when it's right," he said. "Because it's not a matter of the quality, it's simply about the nature of the song and whether it really hits the sweet spot for the people you're collaborating with." T...
It's all about hitting that sweet spot, according to Mr Menken, even if he can't always predict what that will be. "I've had songs that I thought were kind of a dumb song, but it just hit the sweet spot," he said. "Like there was a song in [2010 animated film] Tangled called I Got A Dream. "People love that song, but to me it's like, 'Oh my God it'...
Dec 12, 2014 · Alan Menken is undoubtedly one of this generation’s most preeminent composers of film and stage. His work with Disney has helped defined the musical movie experience of countless young people, and his musical stage adaptations continue to innovate and leave audiences awe-struck, allowing us to fall.
- Musicnotes
Mar 20, 2024 · Alan Menken —composer of such magical musicals as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and, currently celebrating its 10th anniversary of making wishes come true on Broadway, Aladdin —has...
May 25, 2023 · Film composer extraordinaire Alan Menken on what makes a Disney musical sing – and why The Little Mermaid’s live action remake will make such a splash
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Nov 2, 2022 · Mr. Menken, before you became an Oscar winning composer, you used to say that you’d rather starve than compromise your destiny to work in music. What made you so sure of yourself? We're all born, I think, with a dharma, with a journey ahead of us.
